Johnstown Corporation | Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown Corporation (Formerly USX) has been in operation for 99 years. They specialize in medium to large steel castings and rolling mill rolls. Production capacity at this facility is roughly 25,000 tons per year utilizing Alkyd Oil, Phenolic Urethane No-Bake and Clay Bonded core and mold technologies.

General Foundry Information

Product Line:

Steel castings for automotive, industrial, naval, and power generation

Steel and iron rolls

Casting Metal Type:

Steel 90% of Production

Iron Rolls 10% of Production

Melting Facilities:

(1) 30 Ton Electric Arc Furnace

(2) 8 Ton Electric Arc Furnaces

(2) 4 Ton Induction Furnaces

(1) 25 Ton Ladle Station

Sand Facilities:

Core Processes:

Phenolic Urethane No-Bake

Alkyd Oil

Molding Processes:

Phenolic Urethane No-Bake

Alkyd Oil

Clay Bonded Silica

Cleaning Facilities:

Hand RotoBlast (2)

Cleaning Booths

Grinding

Riser Burn Stations (1)

Heat Treating:

Ovens (12)

Quench and Temper

Stress Relieve

Normalize

Pattern Shop:

Wood, Styrofoam, Urethane Patterns

Project Objective:

The objective of the project was to reduce binder consumption and improve process repeatability. Additionally, high / low binder recipe capabilities and reduced mechanical problems were needed.

Resin and labor costs associated with daily calibrations of pumping system

Scrap molds due to fluctuations in chemical delivery

Solution:

They installed the MT Systems SMART PUMP Control System on three of their continuous mixers. This was done in three stages with a design to give them the consistent repeatable chemical addition along with greatly improved mechanical reliability.

To accomplish this, each mixer was outfitted with the following hardware:

The system fully compensates for line restrictions, chemical viscosity changes, pump wear, and operating pressure changes. If for any reason the chemical levels can not reach their set point and SMART PUMP is unable to compensate, the system alarms to notify the operator or shuts down.

Results and Benefits:

Reduced average chemical levels by 15%

Reduced maintenance downtime and maintenance expenditures

Reduced mold scrap by 80%

Increased productivity by making the job right the first time

Better shake out due to reduced resin levels

Monetary Savings/Pay Back:

The original projected time was 14 months and the actual pay back was 9 months.